Assumptions and Questions

Every time I gratefully receive a vegetarian meal, I’m also amazed at the assumptions people make about us non-meat eaters.  Vegetarian meals are generally full of healthy foods, which are nice, but they generally don’t include great desserts.  I’m currently sitting on an airplane, watching my fellow passengers enjoy chocolate cake, while I snack on healthy fruit.  Folks, just because I don’t eat meat, doesn’t mean I’m not a committed fan of chocolate cake – or chocolate in any form for that matter.  To keep me from falling in a sugar-seeking frenzy on the cake of my seatmate, let me instead write about the topic of assumptions.

As business development professionals, it’s important to carefully avoid assumptions and ask good questions from our clients about their projects and about their needs and expectations for design/construction professionals.  For example, is it true that budget conscious clients want cheap solutions or that they don’t want to spend money?  No; they just need clear justification for expenditures and may, in fact, prefer a more expensive alternative.  Do bureaucratic clients always take more time to make decisions?  No; they just need to have timeframes and the cost of late decision-making explained to them.  Do all clients hate change orders?  No; most clients just hate to be surprised with change orders.

Before meeting with any client, I recommend to my own clients that they create interview guides to direct questioning and make sure they’re really probing for important information.  An interview guide is not a formula for a conversation. Rather, a guide is just what it sounds like – a “map” that helps conversation flow in a productive direction.

An effective conversation guide starts with project-related topics of interest such as budget, schedule, or project history.  It should also include process-related topics such as working relationships with consultants or communication preferences.  And, it should include personal-related topics such as role on the project or personal interests as they relate to project performance.  By including a full compliment of topics, the BD professional can learn extensive amounts of information in a shorter amount of time.  I recommend conversation guides be pre-written, first by topic and then by question.  More experienced business developers can prompt themselves with topic areas; less experienced professionals may find that writing questions out helps them keep questions open-ended and information generating.

A good business development interviewer doesn’t make assumptions about what s/he hears; rather, s/he starts with open-ended questions to get the client talking and then hones in on areas of interest through increasingly specific probing questions. And, good probing questions require active listening skills, not simply moving on to the next question on the list.

For example:

·        Business Developer:  “Ms. Jones, what has led your organization to the point of needing new space?"

·        Client:  “We’ve experience tremendous growth as a result of our new product line, which is something we really didn’t expect and it’s created some significant space challenges.”

·        Business Developer:  “Can you tell me about those space challenges?”

·        Client:  “Our new space requirements are really specific; we just can’t seem to do what we need to in the existing space.  As a result, we think it’s a good time to be thinking about a new building.”

·        Business Developer:  “What is specific about your space requirements?”

·        Client:  “We need large, open laboratory spaces that accommodate teams of researchers working collaboratively in a well-ventilated environment.”

·        Business Developer:  “Why a new building vs. other options for this type of space?”

·        Client:  ”We’ve always wanted our own building to make a real statement for our company in the downtown core. This seems to be a catalyst for making that happen; our management has reached that ‘tipping’ point that they’re ready to act.”

Interesting conversation, one that could still lead in many different directions; I’d love to see this one evolve.  Instead of spending time talking about his/her firm, this hypothetical business developer comes to the conversation with a genuine interest in the client and the project.  S/he asks a first open-ended question about the client’s needs (product needs).  S/he listens carefully to the answer and follows up with increasingly specific questions designed to clarify the client’s real project needs.  In four questions, s/he’s found out that the client wants a specific type of space, that the organization wants a statement building in downtown, and that they need space quickly to accommodate unexpected growth.  Were I the principal of the design or construction firm pursuing this client, this would indeed be valuable information.

The takeaway (and they did take away the remains of the chocolate cake) from this is that business developers need to think carefully about what they need or desire to know about projects and clients.  And, they need to plan conversations to cover a broad range of topics – product, process, and personally related – quickly.  Finally, they need to really listen and use probing questions to clarify what the client is saying to get at the information that helps us win projects by being able to address the client’s real needs, expectations, and aspirations.

So, on behalf of my seatmate, thanks for keeping my mind occupied while she finished her cake.  And, good luck to all the dedicated business developers who take the initiative to learn the depth of information it takes to win in our increasingly competitive design/construction environment.